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Deputy charged with bribery, theft in kickback scheme

A Harford County Sheriff's Office deputy is facing felony charges in connection with a kickback scheme that police said he was carrying out with a Baltimore towing and repossession company.

Deputy First Class Todd Johnson was arrested and charged with bribery and felony theft after sheriff's officials said he traded restricted information with Final Notice Recovery Towing and Repossession for a price for up to two years.

The investigation into Johnson started with a tip given to the sheriff's office in February.

"The allegation was that he was using agency resources and using his powers as a police officer to help a local tow company locate vehicles that were being repossessed," said sheriff's office spokesman Ed Hopkins.

According to sheriff's officials, Johnson had access to a database called the National Crime Information Center, which is a restricted resource intended only for law enforcement that can provide personal information.

"The database there is going to give physical descriptions of people, it's going to give dates of birth, possibly Social Security numbers, possibly last-known addresses -- a lot of identity information that, again, is restricted to law enforcement use only," Hopkins said.

Johnson was arrested Thursday morning at his home in Aberdeen. Sheriff's officials said that he was using the database to pass on information to the repo company in exchange for cash. Officials didn't say how much money due to the continuing investigation but said they believe money was changing hands for a period of 18 months to two years.

"We believe that he was looking up the information himself. We believe that the tow truck operator would provide him vehicles that he was looking for -- information that's they're trying to find in the Harford County area -- and then the deputy would use his computer to try to track that information down," Hopkins said.

No one was at the towing company late Thursday afternoon. It's still in operation, but sheriff's officials said they've executed a search warrant there, and charges could be pending.

Johnson was reassigned within the department during the investigation. He has since been suspended without pay.

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